Jack M. Willis
Journal Correspondent

In response to the woes of the Great Depression, one of the relief programs enacted into law on April 27th, 1935 during the first administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt was the establishment of the Soil Conservation Service, which followed on the heels of the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps on March 31st, 1933.

The CCC at first had mainly addressed reforestation of millions of acres of cut-over lands but additional aid was desperately needed to try to halt the ever-persistent problem of soil erosion. Thus the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) was installed as a permanent agency under the USDA umbrella. (As a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, the name was changed to the Natural Resources Conservation Services on October 20th, 1994.)

Picked to head up the SCS 75 years ago in May of 1935 was Hugh Hammond Bennett, a highly qualified individual with an impressive background of promoting erosion control practices since 1903.

By late 1936, the SCS, under the guiding hand of Bennett had already established 147 erosion control demonstration projects, 48 nurseries, 23 experiment stations, 454 CCC Camps affiliated with his programs, and had over 23,000 Works Projects Administration employees on Federal payrolls.

An employee, who would benefit from the creation of the SCS later on, was one Marshall Hough who now resides in Natchitoches, LA.

Marshall Hough was born on August 5th, 1919 near Noble in Sabine Parish, graduated from Noble High School in 1936, and with Marshall's father being a fierce devotee to the theorem that all his children should attend Louisiana State University, Marshall promptly enrolled at the "Old War Skule" in the fall of 1936.

Upon graduation from LSU in 1940 with a major in Vocational Agriculture and a minor in Agronomy, Marshall took an exam for employment with the SCS, and even though he had a college degree he was hired as only a Conservation Engineering Aide I. Be that as it may, and with ominous rumblings of war in Europe, Marshall decided to go ahead get married at the same time. (He and his lovely wife recently celebrated their 65th Wedding Anniversary.)

In the meantime Marshall had heard that the U.S. Army Air Corps was looking for potential pilots, so feeling he had nothing to lose, Hough submitted his application and was promptly inducted into the Army Air Corps and began his flight training at Thunderbird Field near Phoenix, Arizona.

Thunderbird Field was established in 1940 as a contract flying school operated by Southwest Airways, but operations were managed and conducted by the Army Air Corps. Upon graduation from flight school Hough was stationed in Alaska for a year connected to a B-25 Bomber Group and then it was off to McDill Army Air Base in Florida as part of a pilot instructor crew to begin training B-25 pilots. An abrupt change in orders sent him to Barksdale A.A.B. near Shreveport, LA where he was assigned to a liaison group of B-25s and P-51s where he was promoted to Commanding Officer of the group, and also attaining the rank of First Lieutenant. No sooner had he assumed command, than the group was shipped out to Brownwood, TX, and overnight they were ferried to a newly constructed air base near Pollock, LA in March of 1943.

Shortly after they took up residence at Pollock, new orders had them boarding a train whose destination was New York State, where transport planes were waiting to ferry them across the Atlantic to an aerodrome just outside London, England.

In August following D-Day on June 6, 1944, liaison duties continued with Hough's men transporting mail and reassigned officers, some of whom were being assigned to any one of three complements of the division commanded by General Omar Bradley.

Upon discharge after the war ended, Hough arrived back in Many, Louisiana where he had formerly been employed by the SCS. The governmental agency gave him his position back as an Aide but now he was an Engineering Aide V. Hough stayed in Many for six months, but then transferred to Winnfield as District Conservationist, where he would remain until 1968 when he was transferred to Natchitoches for three years.

In 1971 Marshall Hough was transferred to Baton Rouge to assume the twin positions of Unit Conservationist and public relations liaison, where his primary duties were to work up feature presentations spotlighting SCS activities in the East Baton Rouge Parish area.

When reaching 55 years of age in 1974, Hough made a quality decision to retire from the SCS and relocate to one of his former work stations in Natchitoches, purchasing a home on a street about three doors down from author Bobby Harling's parents. Bobby Harling is the noted author of "Steel Magnolias", which became a popular motion picture, much of which was shot on location in Natchitoches.

Since retirement Marshall has been to Europe twice, to Alaska and eastern and western Canada, and has contented himself with managing his personal timber farm of 180 acres, plus an additional adjoining 180 acres belonging to two of his brothers which he also looks after.

When asked about lifetime achievements he is proud of, he smiled and recounted a tale of a widow who had been left some timberland by her deceased husband. Marshal said, "There was this timber scoundrel who had approached the widow about buying and harvesting her timber but only offering her $1000 an acre for 160 acres." Marshall went on, "The lady sensed there was something improper about the offer and came and asked me to take over the sale of her timber. So, I cruised her acreage and got her to put the harvest rights up for bid. In doing so, the highest bidder gave her just over $5000 per acre."

Another project he was instrumental in developing and implementing was the decades-old problem of seasonal flooding of adjoining lands along Port de Luce in Winn Parish. Plans for a 500 acre recreational lake were later scrapped for lack of cooperation by some of the landowners along the bayou.

Marshall Hough has suffered some health problems in the last few years, and now contents himself with his birding hobby. He likes to go out to his son"s home on Black Lake near Campti and enjoy the parade of nature's creatures.

In winding down our visit he made what we consider a monumental statement when he said with conviction, "I feel like I contributed something to conserving the land."

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